


Energy Source

by Nonesane



Category: BioShock Infinite
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Multi, Self-cest, Sexual Harassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 13:31:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nonesane/pseuds/Nonesane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What dangers are there out in the known universes for two people who can't die or be hurt, who can appear and disappear as they please? Robert Lutece is about to find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Energy Source

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wilde_Shade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wilde_Shade/gifts).



Robert Lutece woke up. As this was something he hadn’t done in an immeasurable amount of time it caused him some concern.

“He’s awake.”

He couldn’t put a face to that voice. He sat up and tried to locate the source of the sound, but wherever he was it was too dark to make out more than silhouettes of spares furniture. Rubbing at his eyes felt like the right thing to do at that moment, though he couldn’t place why he felt the need. Blinking sleep or whatever unconsciousness had overcome him out of his eyes he made another attempt to take in his surroundings.

The bars were unsettling. The man standing on the other side of them equally so. He looked like a thug, if a well dressed one.

“And who might you be?” Robert asked the man.

“None of your business, Lutece.” The man spat on the floor and turned his back to the bars.

Robert sighed. He turned to make a comment to Rosalind. The air next to him remained empty.

“Rosalind?”

“Ain’t my name,” the man said, still with his back turned to Robert. “Not even close, boy.”

Robert barely heard the words. “Rosalind? Is this some kind of game?” He wrung his hands, waited. The man on the other side of the bars ignored him.

No answer.

“I guess I’ll have to go find you then,” Robert said under his breath. He let his eyes sweep over the rickety bed and windowless walls before he began to concentrate on moving.

Fading in an out took no effort and even less time. He pictured the road that most of the time went past the statue built in honor of his and/or Rosalind’s achievement. 

He was still in the same room. Two steps closer to the bars, but definitely the same room.

“What the devil…?”

****

Rosalind Lutece could count occasions that had called for such unpleasant outbursts as swearing on one hand. Thus, finding herself alone, truly alone for the first time since she’d been fully corporeal, didn’t cause her to exclaim any swearword or damnation.

But it was a near thing.

Panic was also a near thing. 

“The hell are you, lady?”

Rosalind whirled around and came face to face with a woman her own frozen age, who looked to have seen better days both in regards to clothing and health. The bruises and cuts didn’t look life threatening, but neither did they look comfortable.

The alley the two of them occupied looked just as beat-up as the woman. The stone work that made up the walls of it also were the same color as the gun the woman was pointing at Rosalind.

Rosalind took a moment to gather her thoughts, which seemed to be going in a far too linear direction for a few seconds. Several faces, all the same shape and size, all with the same eyes and skin color, trudged their way out of her memory and formed into a whole. “Ah. You.”

Fitzroy looked much like herself, no matter the universe.

“I said: what the hell are you, lady?” Fitzroy waved her gun, not in the manner of a nervous mugger but in the way of a seasoned bankrobber asking for a bag to be filled with money.

“Do you recognize me?” Rosalind asked, not looking at Fitzroy. She studied the walls of the alley, tried to see them in more places than one, and failed. Her stomach turned, a nausea that grew worse when she reached out to steady herself against Robert and found only empty air.

Fitzroy had taken a step closer, gun aimed at Rosalind’s head. “You clearly know more about me than I know about you. I don’t like that.”

“Robert Lutece,” Rosalind said, eyes on the wall, “does that name ring any bells for you?”

The gun lowered an inch. “…you got the same hair as him. Relation?”

“I’m his sister.” The disorientation was wearing off, leaving room for mere dizziness. “Can you take me to him?”

“He’s dead.”

Rosalind sighed. “I suspected as much.”

That got her a frown from Fitzroy. “You look awfully calm for a woman who’s just been told her brother’s gone.”

“I’m a very calm woman,” Rosalind said, turning to face Fitzroy. The dizziness was fading as well, bringing back the world as it should be. Almost. Robert was still a blank spot to her. Not gone, not completely, but hidden. 

“You don’t say.” Fitzroy raised her gun again, aiming it at the center of Rosalind’s forehead. “Must admit you’re the first fancy lady to stare down this barrel without crying. Well done you.”

“Fancy?” Rosalind looked down at her clothes. Nothing out of the ordinary. “I suppose. I prefer the term neat.”

“That what you want to be discussing right now?” Fitzroy said. “My choice of words?”

“I am rather curious as to why you feel the need to aim a weapon at me.” Rosalind held out her hands, palms open and turned up. “I’m hardly a threat to you.”

Fitzroy laughed. There was no joy to the sound. “Lady, you just appeared out of thin air.” She cocked her gun. “You dingbatty scientists all work for Comstock and I ain’t taking any chances. You’re not the first assassins sent after me.”

Rosalind raised an eyebrow. As she did she searched the city looking through the houses she’d seen herself occupy in other worlds. The laboratory lay in the basement of the third house she looked in. The equipment had pieces missing and some parts broken, but it would do. She began to construct a list.

All the while she stood and kept an eye on Fitzroy.

“I assure you, I’m no assassin,” Rosalind said, blinking a few times to bring her current physical location more into focus.

Fitzroy took another step closer, pressing the barrel of her gun against Rosalind’s forehead. “And I’m supposed to take your word for it?”

Rosalind stood her ground, only moving to fold her arms. “I’m merely interested in finding his laboratory and-”

A chill ran down Rosalind’s spine. The inventory of the sadly late Robert Lutece of this world coordinated to most of the equipment on her list. Most of it. And there was something else entirely to be found in that laboratory.

“-I need your help.”

****

Robert gave a groan of frustration. He concentrated as best as he could with the guard staring at him and the bars, but all he could see were the room’s three walls and the wide corridor outside it. One set of them only. 

He could call up the memory of him and Rosalind walking around and above the Eiffel Tower and before that stood a whole parade of recollections. After that, however…

He tried to move. Not walk, but move. He could feel himself fade out and back in, yet found nothing but the same damned walls and bars around him.

“Flutter about as much as you like, Mr. Lutece. You won’t be leaving this here cell.”

Robert turned around, hands clasped behind his back, and came face to face (if not for the bars) with a familiar person.

“Jeremiah Fink?” 

Fink tipped his hat and waved at the guard, who left. “The one and only.”

“Care to explain why I’m here?” Robert asked, moving closer to the bars.

“You haven’t guessed?” Fink said, smiling in the manner of a cat who’d cornered a mouse. He had no mustache in this universe. It did his face no kindness.

Robert shrugged and did his best to keep his face blank. “There are several possibilities. It would scale down the list of information I would have to go through if you would tell me what you already know of me, as well as what you seek to achieve by keeping me here.”

“I see,” Fink said, smile widening into a grin. “You look very much like the other one.”

Robert took a deep breath through his nose and exhaled slowly, carefully. “Ah.”

“Though I admit the, how should I put this...” Fink paused, seemingly more for dramatic flare than due to any need for word finding. “The extra talent puts you above and beyond him.”

“And earned me this lovely cage, no doubt,” Robert said, allowing himself a frown. “It is not mere steel and plaster, is it?”

“How clever of you,” Fink said. “You’re absolutely correct.”

“Please don’t patronize me. It will be both dull and inaccurate.”

Fink chuckled and moved so they were nose to nose. “Not the best reply if you want to know how the cell works.”

Robert met Fink’s gaze without flinching. “I’m as confident in my ability to figure out your design as I am in the fact that you wouldn’t give me the key to my cell merely for the joy of sharing a scientific discovery.”

More chuckling from Fink. The man looked far too please with himself. “Interesting. You know me well then? Or other versions of me, perhaps?”

“Perhaps.” Robert unclasped his hands and raised them to rest against the bars. “Now, why am I here? And why this particular me? Did the old one move to a farm upstate?”

“I’d forgotten how funny you are,” Fink said. After a moment’s pause he began to pace the hallway, stopping and turning just where he disappeared out of Robert’s view. “Or have I just been blessed by fortune twice?”

“I haven’t met every version of myself, so I wouldn’t know,” Robert said. Each time Fink vanished from view, Robert let his fingers trail along the bars, searching. And finding. Not mere steel indeed. “I am a quite accomplished juggler as well.”

“A man of many skills,” Fink said. His pacing seemed to be picking up speed, his hands fidgeting, his eyes dark. Robert had to stop himself from backing away from the bars.

“So I’ve been told.” There were cords hidden inside the bars. The traces of them were faint, but unmistakable to someone who was looking for them. They had to run all the way though the floor, a circuit around the cell. “Am I here for my sense of humor, then?”

Fink came to a halt right in front of Robert. “No, I’m afraid not,” he said, leaning in close. “See, this isn’t a mere cell, my dear fellow. It’s a way to take care of what I believe is an infinite amount of energy.”

Realization was seldom slow to dawn on Robert. This time it felt like he’d gone from night to day in a heartbeat. He did his best not to move, not to let his eyebrows rise from the thoughtful frown they’d shaped themselves into.

“A very valuable invention,” Fink said. “Priceless, even. As to why you? Let’s just say the previous you was conducting some interesting studies while observing rifts in the fabric of space and time itself. I was inspired by some of his research material that I got my hands on-”

“-in a perfectly legal and honest manner, of course.”

“Of course.” Fink touched the brim of his hat. “My knowledge of your uniqueness is thanks to him, but this here is all my work.” There was glee in his voice. “I could explain the way this brilliant machine works. I could. But I think it’d be easiest to show you.” He reached out and pushed something on the hallway wall, just outside Robert’s field of vision.

Robert gasped. It felt like the floor had been pulled out from under his feet. He steadied himself against the bars and it felt like a mild electric current was pulsing through them, continuing up his arms and shoulders. He had to close his eyes as the sight of the bars began to shift and double.

“We’ll be working our way up to the full strength, slowly. You’re almost impossible to replace, after all.” Fink’s voice sounded like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel. “Your female self looks eerily like you, I must admit.”

“Rosalind?” Robert curled his fingers around the bars, using them to anchor himself in the moment. “Is she occupying a room like mine?”

Fink’s face was a blur. Robert could make out little more than the outline of his eyes. “She is safe. For now.”

“And I assume she will remain so if I cooperate,” Robert said. He did his best to keep upright, focusing on the pulses, on getting used to them.

“As keen a mind as ever, Mr. Lutece,” Fink said. “Now please back away from the door.”

****

“My help?” Rosalind hadn’t heard such mocking laughter since her days at university. Fitzroy had at least lowered her gun. “What deal are you hoping to make here?”

Rosalind took in the alleyway again, reached out as far as her senses would let her. She met walls she hadn’t felt before, but they were crumbling. Slowly.

“What if I told you,” she said, making sure to catch and hold Fitzroy’s gaze, “that I could get you inside Fink’s factory without losing a single soldier?”

Fitzroy’s grin shrunk and she turned her gun to point towards the ground. “How do you-?”

“I’m a resourceful person,” Rosalind said.

“Well.” Fitzroy frowned, but she holstered her gun. “I’m listening.”

****

The bed made Robert’s back ache. It was little more than a plank of wood covered by a sheet. Lovely.

“Welcome back, Mr. Lutece.”

Turning his head his own arm came into focus, along with three fingers pressed against his wrist. “May I ask why you’re taking my pulse?”

Fink smiled down at him and Robert automatically tried to pull his arm away when he saw the look in Fink’s eyes. Fink let him go.

“It seems the experience became a bit too much for you,” Fink said. “Is it normal for your heart to be beating this slow?”

“Most of the time it doesn’t beat at all,” Robert said, pushing himself up onto his elbows, then turned around to sit up on the bed, his back to the wall. Fink got out of the chair he’d been seated in and stood towering over the bed.

Robert rolled down the sleeves of his shirt and crossed his arms over his chest. The pulses were still there, but his vision had cleared. “I would like my jacket back, please.”

Fink stepped aside and gestured at the clothing article in question, hung over the back of the chair. Sitting up straighter Robert reached out for it, careful to not brush against Fink.

Just as he lifted the jacket away from the chair, Fink grabbed his arm. Robert stifled a gasp.

“Will you be needing food?” Fink asked, giving Robert’s wrist a squeeze that made his skin crawl. “Sleep? Bathroom facilities?”

Robert stayed stock still, looking up at Fink without blinking. “There should be no need for that. Though I can’t predict how this apparatus will affect me.”

“Good,” Fink said. “We shall have to keep that under observation.” He let go of Robert again, his grip loosening slower this time.

Saying nothing, Robert took his jacket and put it back on. Glancing up he noted a faint vibration rippling through the ceiling. The energy seemed to ripple inward from the top of the walls in beat with the pulses echoing through his body.

“I will see to it that your living conditions are improved shortly,” Fink said, smiling for all the world as if he were the manager of a hotel reassuring a guest. “The machine has been operational for quite some time, but you and your…companion appeared earlier than I had estimated. There was no time to find better furniture than this.”

Robert stood and took a turn about the room, as much as that was possible when said room could be crossed in five steps. He pretended to scrutinize the closest wall, using it for support so his knees wouldn’t have to hold all of his weight. “Some flowers would be nice.”

Fink chuckled. “As I said, I do enjoy your sense of humor. If you’ll come over here-”

Robert pulled his hand back just in time to avoid being grabbed a third time.

“I’m sorry,” Fink said. “Old habits die hard.”

“Excuse me?” Robert did his best to rest his back against the wall in as causal a manner as possible, forcing his eyes to stay on Fink’s face instead of darting to keep track of his hands.

Fink gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Your predecessor and I had an arrangement.”

“You do realize he and I aren’t the same person, I hope” Robert said, fighting the tremor threatening to enter his voice.

This got a sigh out of Fink. “Yes of course.” There was something akin to sadness or regret in Fink’s eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “But I hope we two can come to the same understanding.”

There was no question as to what such a deal would entail. The way Fink’s eyes darken and his sudden demanding touches were clues enough. 

“No thank you,” Robert said, narrowing his eyes. “You already have me locked up and I assure you, you can’t kill me or cause me pain.” He tried not to think about how solid everything around him felt and how his heartbeat seemed to be picking up speed.

“And your companion?” Fink asked, raising one eyebrow and smirking.

Caught between a rock and a hard place; Robert had never given the expression much thought before this moment. The stones of the wall felt like they were trying to dig holes in his back.

“Seeing as she’s in the same condition as me, you have no bargaining-”

Fink backhanded him. And hit his mark. 

Robert found himself gaping and wide-eyed, touching his stinging cheek as if it were new body part that had burst through his skin. He tasted copper in his mouth and his fingers came away bloodied when they brushed against his lower lip.

“I think we can call that little experiment a success,” Fink said. He took hold of Robert’s chin and turned his head to study the wound. “Do we understand each other?”

Robert didn’t pull free nor did he grit his teeth. He merely cleared his throat, swallowing against the lump now lodged there, and straightened up.

“I’m taking that as a yes.” Fink stroked Robert’s injured lip with the ball of his thumb. The leather of his gloves was soft and the smell of them spoke of a number of unusual chemicals. Robert curled his hands into fists and hid them behind his back.

Thankfully, holding his breath until Fink let go of him proved to be no challenge.

Fink walked backwards and took a seat in the chair, leaving Robert to lean against the wall. Smiling, of course he was smiling.

“Aren’t you the least bit curious as to where your predecessor has disappeared to?” he asked.

Robert made a show of straightening his jacket and fixed his gaze on a spot on the wall behind and slightly to the left of Fink’s head. “I assumed he died under circumstances that were hard to explain.”

“Officially, yes.” 

Out of the corner of his eye Robert could see Fink’s smug grin fade away. “Are you planning a ‘I’ve killed you once and I can do it again’-speech?” he asked, fighting against the pulses and the stinging of his cheek to keep his voice calm and steady. “Because it’s completely unnecessary.”

Fink sighed, the sound heavy and slow. “Oh, I didn’t kill you - or rather, him. He did that to himself.”

****

“Are you prepared?”

Fitzroy looked up from the cables she’d twined together and brushed the dust off her knees. “As ready as I can be.”

Rosalind stepped around the pile of left over parts and stepped into the illuminated area of the room. She gestured for Fitzroy to join her. Fitzroy paused, fidgeting with the cables.

“Are you sure you don’t wish to bring any of your soldiers?” Rosalind asked. “We are, so to speak, entering enemy territory.”

Fitzroy let go of the cables and stepped into the bright light, keeping an arm length’s distance between herself and Rosalind. “Not risking my people until I know this works.”

“But you’re willing to risk yourself?” Rosalind reached out and pulled one of the levers on the rickety pillar of wires and metal that made out one of the machine's three corner stones.

Fitzroy scoffed. “Can’t have you doing whatever this really is without keeping an eye on you. You never said why you’re so eager to-”

In a flash the light spread out from the center of the room and engulfed them both.

****

“Is there a reason as to why you’re keeping me company?” Robert said after a long silence. Fink was still seated on the rickety chair, just staring, silent.

“I’m waiting for you to realize your situation,” Fink said. “It’ll be interesting to see if you react the same way.”

Robert fiddled with the knot of his tie. “I can assure you I have fully realized where I stand at the moment. You’ll see no ill-advised escape attempts from me.” He ignored the clear pattern he’d seen in the bars and on the ceiling, picturing instead Rosalind locked in a similar cage.

At that Fink gave a laugh much louder than any chuckle he’d voiced before. He all but slapped his knee in pure mirth. “You expect me to believe that? Remember that I know you.”

“You knew one of me,” Robert said, letting go of his tie. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but this is all the reaction you will see from me.”

“Very well.” Fink got up from his seat. “How about I give you some incentive?”

“What are you-?” All breath was pushed out of Robert’s lungs as Fink grabbed his shoulders and slammed him into the wall. He gasped as Fink slipped a leg in-between his, putting pressure inward and upward.

“This is your situation, Mr. Lutece,” Fink whispered into his ear, sliding his hands down Robert’s arms to take hold of his wrists. He raised Robert’s hands until they were at level with his head and pinned them there. “Anything to add?”

A click echoed through the room. “Unhand my brother, if you would be so kind.”

Fink’s face was so close that Robert couldn’t make out his expression, but the leg between his had eased its pressure and the fingers around his wrists had tightened their grip. He had no trouble recognizing who it was that had spoken.

“I will not ask again.”

Fink’s grip tightened hard enough to bruise, then let go. Robert watched him back away two steps before he dared tilt his head to the side.

Rosalind stood there, not a hair out of place, resting a gun against the back of Fink’s head. Robert was sure his heart stopped.

“Turn around,” Rosalind said, not looking at Robert. “I might not be as adept with a weapon as most of your associates, Mr. Fink, but at this range I’m sure I could cause you severe brain damage. I advise against all sudden movements.”

A glint of light on metal from the corridor outside reawakened Robert’s heartbeat. “Behind you!”

The sound of the gun firing was deafening in the small room. Robert held his breath. He caught sight of a person who had to be Daisy Fitzroy, gun in hand, standing outside the cell.

The bullet curved around Rosalind’s body and smashed into pieces against the stone wall.

Robert caught his breath again, only to realize he had no need to.

Swearing could be heard from where Fink had thrown himself to the floor. Rosalind hadn’t flinched and was looking down at Fink. Robert felt himself go numb, inch by inch. Why wouldn't she look at him?

“It’s about time,” Rosalind said, gun aimed at Fink’s lower back, but she wasn't addressing him.

Fitzroy stopped gaping long enough to say: “What?”

Rosalind gave Fitzroy a cursory glance before turning her gaze back to Fink. “Your betrayal was both obvious and inevitable.”

Another shot rang out from Fitzroy's gun. Fink gave a cry as another bullet smashed into pieces. Robert did his best to melt into the wall.

“What did you do to my gun?” Fitzroy said. She held the weapon in question with both hands - hands that looked to be shaking.

“Nothing,” Rosalind said. “It’s more what I prevented you from doing to me.”

Robert could all but hear Fitzroy grit her teeth from where he stood. She looked like she was about to dislocate her jaw.

“You didn’t need to get inside this factory,” Rosalind said. “You had Fink's permission to come and go as you please. I did, however, need your help in assembling my device or it would have taken me days to get oriented again. Few people around here have the skill to keep up with me and you had a vested interest I seeing me by my brother’s side. Did you think I wouldn’t detect the changes you made and counteract them?”

“How?”

Rosalind’s smile was cold. “I really should have figured the situation out by myself, but I admit I was distracted during my first moments here. Robert alerted me to and kept me up to date on your activities and where I needed to go. Not my Robert, you understand, but yours.”

“Impossible.” Robert started as Fink spoke. His voice trembled, yes, but the emotion behind the tremor sounded more like rage than fear. Robert tried to catch Rosalind’s eye, to gage her intent, but her attention remained on Fink.

“Poison isn’t our usual signature and neither is suicide,” Rosalind said. “An autopsy would have been wise.”

Robert watched as Fitzroy began to edge away from the cell.

Rosalind too watched her move down the corridor, looking less than impressed.

“Greedy of you to expect me as payment for your help with building this.” Rosalind gestured at the ceiling and the bars with her free hand. “You should have started asking questions when I demanded to go here right away, but you always do seem to turn out reckless. Then again, you should have designed your field to be more accurate in its trapping mechanism. You were lucky to have located my energy signature before I got myself oriented - though I guess me having unknowingly flickered in place for over an hour that can't have been much of a challenge with such a small search area. I calculate your reach to be two, maybe three miles.”

Fitzroy cursed. Then she turned on her heel and began to run.

“Coward!” Fink bellowed after her. He made no move to get up from the floor. He did give a groan as the heel of Rosalind’s shoe dug into the back of his knee.

“I’ve had quite enough of you, Mr. Fink,” she said. “In fact, I am tempted to shoot you for what you have done.”

“Shooting me will do you no good,” Fink said, turning his head to glare at Rosalind. “You might be able to dodge bullets, but you’re trapped her same as he is.” There was a trace of his usual smug smirk on his lips. “Best bet for you is to let me out so I can turn the machine off, or you’ll be locked up here for a very long time, with him and my dead body as only company.”

Rosalind removed her heel from Fink’s knee, her face a controlled mask. “I am aware of that. Which is why I had this world’s Robert rig the system to overload.”

Robert choked back a laugh of pure relief as Fink’s eyes widened in horror.

“There should be a counter reaction just about…” Rosalind paused and looked up. “Now.”

There was no sound. No bright light. There was, however, the sight of Fink disintegrating and a light in Rosalind’s eyes that Robert though his might mirror.

They were on a beach. The air was warm and humid. Rosalind’s hand was on his cheek.

“Rosalind…”

“What else?” Rosalind asked, touching Robert’s split lip gently. The cut had already begun to close.

“Nothing.”

Her lips moved, but she cut off whatever word she was about to speak. They both knew what had gone unsaid.

"W-what happened exactly?" Robert asked, trying to sort through all familiar and unfamiliar impressions and experiences flowing back to him.

"That Fink and Fitzroy laid a trap for us," Rosalind said. "They couldn't trap us in the same cage of course, we would have made our way out within minutes, so they had to separate us and they only had one shot at catching us."

It didn't take Robert long to add up the parts to get the correct sum. "Fink said he'd gotten access to my counterpart's data. That Robert must have observed us going into their dimension sometime in the future, from his point of view."

"Correct," Rosalind said. "Fink had two years to work and he only managed to scrape together what he needed because he had your counterpart's research and the help of Daisy Fitzroy, who hoped to get infinite energy out of the deal. They set the trap where they estimated our coordiantes would be-"

"-and we walked right into it," Robert said. "Except something went wrong and you got misplaced, which meant Fitzroy had to go get you."

"Yes. Luckily your counterpart helped me get oriented and made me aware of the situation, as well as what I would need to say and do. I suspect Fitzroy went along with the construtction of the teleport because she saw it as her chance to trap me again. She was too late to get me while I was out of touch with myself, so she hoped to rig the gear I planned to build."

Robert nodded, mostly to himself.

The waves lapped against the beach. Rosalind let go of him. “Do you wish me to leave you alone? For a moment?”

He took her hand in his, put it back on his cheek. “Please don’t.”

“Good,” Rosalind said, closing her eyes for a second. “Because I doubt I could leave your side right now.”

At the look he gave her, Rosalind took his free hand in hers and rubbed a soothing circle on his palm with her thumb. “I’ve done you a great unkindness, brother.” She took a deep breath and her eyes flickered away from and back to his face. “But if I had paused to look at you, I’m sure I would have shot Fink.”

Robert let the words sink in, let them settle like ice on a burn.

“Death by a gunshot wound would have been too mild a punishment for him.”

“I thought…”

Rosalind gave his injured cheek a caress and leaned up to kiss the cut on his lip. “I wouldn’t ever think so of you,” she said and moved closer. "And I would never leave you."

As she pulled him down for a deeper kiss, Robert finally relaxed.

****

The waves lapped at the beach like the tongue of a cat licking up milk from a plate. Robert had taken off his shoes and was standing with water up to his ankles. At the same time he could feel the chill of a winter morning and the smoggy air of central London.

He smiled.

“Should we go bowling?”

“I thought you hated bowling,” Robert said, smiling as Rosalind wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Well I will never have played unless we try our hands at it, which I'm sure will cause us much headache further on. Or further back.”

Robert let his hands rest on Rosalind’s and he leaned his head to the right so his temple touched her hair. “I forgot to ask - will have forgot to ask? - where did my namesake disappear off to?”

He could feel Rosalind taking a deep breath, her chest pressing closer against his back as she sighed. “Poor chap didn’t get his body with him during the transition, but his mind is intact.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “I suppose he’s doing what we did the moment we were free to explore the world.”

Robert entwined her fingers with his. “It has been a while since we observed a supernova.”

“True,” Rosalind said.

“Supernova, then bowling?”

Rosalind nodded. “Supernova, then bowling.”


End file.
